Chelsea FC Sapphire Interview
Details Interviewee '- John Kilbank (Chelsea FC Sapphire) '''Interviewer '- Kevin Lee Coxon (Shotton Comrades) '''Forum Post Date - 6th December 2009 Original Thread '- Click here '''Divison At Time Of Interview '- England, 6.9 Interview '''Introducing Chelsea FC Sapphire of Division 6... 1. So who is John Kilbank, (age, hobbies, which team do you support etc.)? Well, as you can probably figure from my team name, I'm a Chelsea supporter. However, I've been a Chelsea supporter for about twenty years, long before they had money. My grandfather was a supporter and I guess I came by it genetically. I'm a 43 year old graphic designer in Victoria, BC, Canada - when I joined the game I didn't realize that you were supposed to join in your home country and since I hate North American football, I automatically chose England as my country. I play myself and (dare I say it) I'm a referee - but really, that doesn't make me a bad guy. 2. As a somewhat new team in TM have you set yourself a long-term target or are you just enjoying each game as they come? My first goal was to get out of inactive hell, and it looks like the division I'll be joining next year (5 - 9) is more active, so I guess I've accomplished that. I would like to keep progressing up the divisions, although I don't think I can expect to get promoted every season (would be nice though). Naturally, I'd love to work my way up to the Premier League, but that's a ways off. 3. I feel like newer users sometimes have some cracking idea’s on areas to improve in the game do you have any in particular? I think the games pretty good, there are definitely some improvements that could be made on the interface and the look of it. The transfer and bidding system I think really needs to be worked on, it takes a long time to find decent players - I'd especially like to see the current bid amount on the shortlist as I'm frustrated with having to go into the player profile to see if anyone's "upped" the bid on a player I'm interested in. The other thing I'd like to have is the ability to make substitutions during a game. I know that not everyone watches their games in Live View so doing this might give some players an "unfair" advantage. Perhaps it could be something all managers could preset as part of their strategy - i.e. if we're behind at the 60 minute mark, I'd sub a defensive midfielder for a striker and change to a more attacking formation or if we're ahead by one goal at the 80 minute mark, I'd switch from a 4-4-2 to a 4-5-1 defensive formation. 4. It’s often frustrating in the lower leagues where there are fewer responses to press announcements, however I noticed you still seem to enjoy them, are you looking forward to making the move up to a more active league? Definitely frustrating being in an inactive league, there's only two other active teams. I've struck up a PM conversation with one of them, but I'm definitely looking forward to more banter. That seems to me to be the point to a game like this, if all I was looking for was a football sim, I could play FIFA 09 on my son's playstation. 5. In your press announcement back in late October you said you weren’t too upset about leaving the cup in round 5 as you could now concentrate on the league, you seem to have done that very well, do you feel it was easier without the cup games? Frankly, I was mimicking what you often hear managers say in the real game. With TM it's different because your players don't tire the same way from overplaying. Sure, you can get injuries, but the extra games are interesting and you get to play against teams from higher divisions. 6. You most likely haven’t seen any youths really come through for your team so far do you pin any hopes on anyone in particular? Definitely not. My Youth Academy sucks. I plan on upgrading it with my league bonus for this season, but I've been concentrating on the transfer market and buying some decent youth players. I managed to purchase an 18* rated DMC a few weeks back and I'm really looking forward to watching him develop into a first team regular and leader. With a crap YA, I need to be very smart about my purchases on the Transfer List and get some good youth players for the future. 7. How much time do you spend on TM every day/week? I probably spend an hour or so on this every day... time I should be working, but there it is. 8. If you could hack Thomas account for a day and change TM at your will what would you change and what things would you implement? First of all, I'd get my self a really good striker! Seriously though, I don't know what I'd do with an opportunity like that. 9. Although we are all encouraged to take part in the “Game development” forum do you use it? I've read through a bunch of it, but I think the real problem is its complete lack of organization. The same things get suggested in different places by different people and no one is keeping it straight. Also, there doesn't seem to be a lot of things (even in the "Simple and Needed" category) that actually get crossed off. Don't get me wrong, I think the developers have done a good job, but if they want to keep the game growing and keep the expanding user base happy, they need to address some of these little things. What it really needs is an active Forum Teamster to sort out the forum and make it more clear/structured. 10. TM is a great game, what do you like most about it? It appeals to my "inner nerd" - combining a love of football and sim games. The way they've structured TM is pretty true to the spirit of the game. 11. When searching for new players do you take the Average Rating into consideration or are you more interested in other aspects? I try to take everything into account - average ratings, games played, stat distribution, ASI, etc. When I haven't looked at the whole picture, I've ended up being unhappy with a player. I bought a striker with good set piece skills and he turned out to be a complete dud in other aspects. I think my squad is pretty much set for next year, I might try to pick up one or two more youth players to develop - but I think I'm in pretty good shape for Div 5. 12. You have taken the title with ease this season 11pts clear with one game left, you must be “chuffed”? Yeah, I am. I've had some good results this season and the team's been pretty consistent. 13. 5 foreigners rule, good or bad? Good I think. There has to be some limits or the div 1 teams would go out and purchase completely foreign squads (a la Arsenal) - this makes it more of a challenge. 14. Do you have one particular formation you stick to? Do you work to your teams’ strengths or do you try and counter your opponent’s tactics? Definitely try to stick to my team's strengths at this stage. Inactive teams don't vary their tactics - usually 4-4-2 balanced. 15. Something we don’t often hear about in other interviews; do you take advantage of friendly games or friendly leagues to test out new formations or tactics? Absolutely! Especially in a lower division, friendly leagues are super important as they give you a chance to try different things against real managers. In the FL I'm in right now, I'm in 5th place out of 8, so obviously some of the changes aren't working very well! I use these games to test out youth players and different formations on a regular basis. 16. In your opinion, is it possible for a newly created team to make it into division 1 and stay their for the long-term? Hmm, that's a tough one. Some of those teams have so much money, I don't know how anyone will ever compete with that. I think you'd need to spend a few seasons at Div 2 and get some really great youth talent in order to have a chance. Much like the real premier league, it's hard to get there and even harder to stay there - just ask West Brom. Squeaking out survival in your first season is the key, I think. 17. What’s your best moment in TM so far? Was it a special game, season or a certain youth pull? I think landing the above mentioned DMC was one of the things I was the happiest about. I was pretty happy to progress in the cup since I got turfed in the first round last season. 18. Is their one player in your team you would say is the first name on your team sheet, week in, week out? My most consistent player is my OMC, Jack Jarvis, 32 games this season and MOM 8 times. A real consistent performer. And, by the way, he's NOT for sale! 19. I personally have a laugh with a few people in PM’s and I enjoy having a good bit of banter with others, have u made any new friendships on TM and if so who with? I would say the two people I've chatted with the most are my mentor (Goldenballs - he's a great guy and has been a huge help) and 713United (he started around the same time as me and was also in a very inactive div 7 group - we played a lot of friendlies). 20. A question I’m sure everyone is asking themselves, will the ME be good or bad for your team? (Although we don’t know exactly how it’s going to change our results, we do know what is to be expected… less randomness but not getting rid of shock results) I'm really looking forward to the formation capabilities of the new ME and hope that it's everything that it's supposed to be. 21. I see you decided to stay/go “pro” do you think it’s possible to make a success of your team without it, and what’s your favourite feature of pro? Love the assistant manager, although I'd like to be able to customize his look and make him look a bit more like Ray Wilkins. It's a very useful feature and will become more so as I progress to playing real active opposition. Then, I'll need to adjust my formation more to counter the opposition's formation. 22. Anything else you want to add before we say goodbye? I get a bit frustrated with the bitching, moaning and insults on some of the threads on the forum. I'm glad that the forum teamsters seem to be cracking down on some of the habitual offenders. The forums are supposed to be a place that we can chat about the game and share ideas and questions, not a giant bitch session. Personally, I'll be really glad to see the end of the "Get Rid of this ME" threads. Next season, they'll be titled "Bring Back the Old ME" I guess! As I mentioned on a couple of forums, what people don't seem to consider is that this is a computer program, written by people and has errors and problems. There's often a lot of crying about "we should be compensated" for some error or glitch in the program. I'm sure that some people will be unhappy with the new ME and there will be more than one post about some "injustice". When was the last time Microsoft (or any other software company) reimbursed users for a programming error??? TM is a great game, people need to remember that and just try and have fun! Thanks for answering these John, I'm a bit biased but I like this interview alot, theirs a few things in their that we haven't heard before and you are really honest with your answers. Best of luck to you, and well done to Goldenballs for being a great mentor! Reaction *AFC Forestdale "Another great read and speaks alot of sense too"